and cheerfulness are so
admirable that I could not forbear mentioning him to you. He is an
example to us all; and most undeserving should we be if we did not
profit by it. His family have lately succeeded in persuading him to have
his portrait taken as he sits in his arm-chair. It is an excellent
likeness, one of the best I ever saw, and will be invaluable to his
family. This reminds me of Mr. Inman and a promise which he made that he
would send us a copy of your portrait of myself. I say a promise, though
it scarcely amounted to that absolutely, but it was little short of it.
Do you think he could find time to act upon his own wish in this matter?
in which I feel interested on Mrs. Wordsworth's account, who reckons
that portrait much the best both as to likeness and execution of all
that have been made of me, and she is an excellent judge. In adverting
to this subject, I of course presume that you would have no objection to
the picture being copied if the artist were inclined to do it.

My paper admonishes me that I must conclude. Pray let me know in your
next how Mrs. Reed and your family are in health, and present my good
wishes to her.

Ever your faithful and much obliged friend,
WM. WORDSWORTH.[211]

143. _Of the College of Maynooth, &c._

LETTER TO A NEPHEW.

Rydal Mount, June 30. 1845.

MY DEAR C----,

I ought to have acknowledged my debt to you long ago, but the
inflammation in one of my eyes which seized me on my first arrival in
London kept its ground for a long time. I had your two first pamphlets
read to me, and immediately put them into circulation among my friends
in this neighbourhood; but wishing to read them myself I did not like to
write to you till I had done so, as there were one or two passages on
which I wished to make a remark.

[211] _Memoirs_, ii. 418-21.

As to your arguments, they are unanswerable, and the three tracts do you
the greatest possible credit; but the torrent cannot be stemmed, unless
we can construct a body, I will not call it a party, upon a new and true
principle of action, as you have set forth. Certain questions are forced
by the present conduct of government upon the mind of every observing
and thinking person. First and foremost, are we to have a _national_
English Church, or is the Church of England to be regarded merely as a
sect? and is the _right to the Throne to be put on a new foundation_? Is
the